ABSTRACT

This paper presents design method and vibrational analysis of composite propeller
shafts. A propeller shaft is not limited to vehicles, but in many transmission
applications can be used, but in this paper, the aim is to replace a metallic drive shaft by
a two-piece composite drive shaft. Designing of a composite drive shaft is divided in
two main sections: design of the composite shaft and design of couplings. In
composite shaft design some parameters such as critical speed, static torque and
adhesive joints are studied; the behavior of materials is considered nonlinear isotropic for
adhesive, linear isotropic for metal and orthotropic for composite shaft. Along with the
design all the analyses are performed using finite element software (ANSYS). The
results show significant points about optimum design of composite drive shafts.




















INTRODUCTION



Nowadays, composite materials are used in large volume in various engineering
structures including spacecrafts, airplanes, automobiles, boats, sports' equipments,
bridges and buildings. Widespread use of composite materials in industry is due to the
good characteristics of its strength to density and hardness to density. The possibility of
increase in these characteristics using the latest technology and various manufacturing
methods has raised application range of these materials. Application of composite
materials was generally begun only at aerospace industry in 1970s, but nowadays after
only three decades, it is developed in most industries. Meanwhile, the automotive
industry considered as a mother one in each country, has benefited from abilities and
characteristics of these advanced materials. Along with progress in technology, metallic
automotive parts are replaced by composite ones. One of them is drive shaft (propeller
shaft), which numerous researches have been done on it in recent decades. Drive shafts
are usually made of solid or hollow tube of steel or aluminum. Over than 70% of single
or two-piece differentials are made of several-piece propeller shaft that result in a rather
heavy drive shaft [1]. Figure 1 shows a photographic view of two-piece steel and a
sample composite drive shaft. Composite drive shafts were begun to be used in bulk in
automotives since 1988. The graphite/carbon/fiberglass/aluminum driveshaft tube was
developed as a direct response to industry demand for greater performance and
efficiency in light trucks, vans and high performance automobiles. The main reason for
this was significant saving in weight of drive shaft; the results showed that the final
composite drive shaft has a mass of about 2.7 kg, while this amount for steel drive shaft
is about 10 kg. The use of composite drive shafts in race cars has gained great
attention in recent decades. When a steel drive shaft breaks, its components, are thrown
in all directions such as balls, it is also possible that the drive shaft makes a hole in the
ground and throw the car into the air. But when a composite drive shaft breaks, it is
divided into fine fibers that do not have any danger for the driver.

Numerous studies have been carried out to investigate the optimal design and analysis of
composite drive shafts with different materials and layers orientation. Pollard [2] studied
different applications of composite drive shafts for automotive applications. He compared
the advantages and disadvantages of them at various conditions. Rangaswamy and et al.
[3] optimized and analyzed a one-piece composite drive shaft using genetic algorithm
and ANSYS. They found that the use of composite materials lead to the significant
reduction in weight compared to steel drive shaft. They also reported that the fiber
orientation of a composite shaft strongly affects the buckling torque. Rastogi [4]
implemented a FEA approach to design and analyze a composite drive shaft in different
conditions. In the present work an effort has been made to design a HM-Carbon/Epoxy
composite drive shaft. A one-piece composite drive shaft for rear wheel drive automotive
application is designed and analyzed using ANSYS software. Since performance of
conventional drive shafts can be severely limited by the critical speed and large mass
inertia moment of metal shaft, it was investigated in the second part of the paper.










Figure 1. Photographic view of a two-piece steel and one-piece
composite drive shaft [2]




2.Design of composite drive shaft


2.1 specification of the problem

The torque transmission capability of the drive shaft is taken as 3000 N.m, the length
and the outer diameter here are considered as 2 meters and 120 millimeters,
respectively. The drive shaft of transmission system was designed optimally to meet the
specified design requirements.

2.2 Assumptions

The shaft rotates at a constant speed about its longitudinal axis. The shaft has a uniform,
circular cross section. The shaft is perfectly balanced, all damping and nonlinear effects
are excluded. The stress-strain relationship for composite material is linear and elastic;
hence, Hooks law is applicable for composite materials. Since lamina is thin and no
out-of-plane loads are applied, it is considered as under the plane stress.

2.3 Selection of Cross-Section and Materials

The HM Carbon/Epoxy material with fiber volume of 60% is selected for composite
drive shaft. The factor of safety is taken as 6. Table 1 shows the mechanical properties of
each layer of the laminate.












4
o o
o t




2.4 Calculations

Composite drive shaft is studied to meet the three following requirements: torque
transmission capacity, critical speed and torsional buckling capacity. Considering the
equations and design correlations the optimum fiber arrangement of the composite
drive shaft is obtained as [90
0
/ 0
0
/ 45
0
] .




Table 1. Mechanical properties for each lamina of the laminate


Property

HM Carbon/Epoxy
E
11
(Gpa)
190
E
22
(Gpa)
7.7
G
12
(Gpa)
4.2
v
12
0.3
o
1
= o
1
(Mpa)

t c 870
o
2
= o
2
(Mpa)

t c 540
t
12
(Mpa)

30
(kg / m
3
)
1600
V
f

0.6




By using Hill theory, it would be possible to calculate the dimension for failure. With
the thickness of 2.03 millimeters and the applied loads, the 0
0
fibers will not be
ruptured. With the thickness of 2.2 millimeters and the applied loads, the 90
0
fibers will
not be ruptured. Due to the torsion of the shaft, the buckling is negligible.


2 2 2

o
l
(
o
(
+
t


o
t
o
l
+
t
lt
(

= o 2


(1)

(
lr
(
tr

2

lr
(
ltr







3. Modal analysis of composite drive shaft


3.1. Critical speed analysis in composite drive shafts

The main point that attracts manufacturers to use composite materials in the drive shafts
is that they make it possible to increase the length of the shaft. The relationship between
shaft's length and the critical speed for both types of drive shafts are shown in Figure 2. It
is evident that for a specific application where the critical speed is about 8000 rev/min,
the longest possible steel shaft is 1250 mm, while the composite one can have a
length 1650 mm.

[2].





















Figure 2. The effect of shaft length on critical speed [2]

Critical speed of a shaft is obtained through following equation:












Where Ncr is the critical speed and f is the bending frequency. Considering that the
natural frequency of a shaft according to the above equation is inversely proportional to
the square of shaft's length and is proportional to the square root of Young's module,
conventional steel drive shafts are made of two pieces to increase the natural frequency
of the shaft, which results in overall increase in weight of shaft. So, in order to increase
the natural frequency, the length of shaft should be reduced or E / ratio should be
increased. Despite the space limitations
that confines outer diameter of the shaft, the only way to increase the critical
speed is to increase
(Specific module) [3].
E /
ratio
One of the interesting properties of metals is that although there is a clear difference

K
2
(

in their density, their specific modulus is almost constant. With applying fiber-
reinforced composites, fiber orientation arrangement becomes possible in the shaft;
therefore, bending modulus will be high. Also their relative density is low leading to the
desirable specific modulus and increases the critical speed [5].
The natural frequency of the shaft was obtained through Timoshenko theory as
following equation:


f
nt
K
s
30
p
2

L
2

Er
2

2


(3)

Where f
nt
is the natural frequency, p is the first natural frequency and , E are
properties of the steel shaft. K
s
is given by following equation:

1 p
2

2
r
2
f E

1
s

2L
2

1
s

G

(4)

Where the G is modulus of rigidity of
steel shaft and speed is obtained in
following way [3]:
f
s
is equal to 2 for hollow cross sections.
Then
critical

N
cr
60 f
nt (5)



(2)

3.2. Modal analysis of composite drive shaft using ANSYS

In this study, finite element analysis is conducted using ANSYS software. To model the
composite drive shaft Shell 99 element is used and it is subjected to torque. The shaft is
fixed at both ends and is subjected to torque at the middle. Figure 3 shows the domain of
finite element mesh. Once the finite element mesh and the layers are created, orientation
of materials is defined for the shell element and layer materials for each of these
elements are being allocated. The other steps include placing the boundary conditions
and selecting appropriate solvers. The shaft rotates with maximum speed so the design
should include a critical frequency. If the shaft rotates at its natural frequency, it can be
severely vibrated or even collapsed. The modal analysis is performed to find the natural
frequencies in lateral directions. The mode shapes for all material combinations are
obtained to their corresponding critical speeds. A number of fundamental modes, which
all are critical frequencies, are obtained. If the shaft's frequencies correspond to these
ones, it may be collapsed.
The dynamic analysis shows that the first natural frequency is 169.64 Hz, and according
to it the critical speed is equal to 10178 rpm, which is much more than the critical
rotational speed of 4000 rpm. According to the equations obtained in previous section,
natural frequency of a specific composite drive shaft is 4570.2 rpm. This value is very
different from the initial value because the correlations used to obtain the values
associated with the shaft, were in case of considering some assumptions.
Figure 4 depicts the deformation rate change for composite drive shaft at the first natural
frequency. Figures 5 to
8 show the displacement rate of composite drive shaft in different directions at first
mode. The natural frequencies of composite drive shaft are given in Table 2.





Figure 3. The mesh configuration of composite shaft Figure 4. The deformation form
of composite shaft at first mode



Figure 5. The displacement rate of composite shaft Figure 6. The
displacement rate of composite shaft
in x-direction at first mode in y-direction at
first mode



Figure 7. The displacement rate of composite shaft Figure 8. The total displacement
contour of composite shaft at
in z-direction at first mode first mode

Table 2. Natural frequencies of composite drive shaft
Frequen
cy
Number
Frequen
cy
(Hz
)
1 169.64
2 182.67
3 226.73
4 255.98
5 278.44




4. Design of adhesive joints in composite
drive shafts

The joints used for connecting composite materials can be metallic or non-metallic.
Steel fasteners due to the possibility of galvanic corrosion with carbon-epoxy materials,
are mainly made of titanium or stainless steel. Other alloys such as aluminum or steel
can be used provided that no contact with the surface is occurred. Joints are divided to
metal screws and rivets. Non-metallic connectors are created from reinforced thermo set
or thermoplastic resins. By using this connection, structural weight reduces and corrosion
problems disappear [6].
In this part, firstly the thickness of the adhesive and length of adhesive bond are
computed. Then, a finite element analysis of this type of bond is performed using
ANSYS software.
The "Araldite" adhesive was used in this study. The following correlations were used to
calculate the required
paramete
rs:



max

a

tanh
a


m



(6)

c

G l
2

a

2Gee
c

Where l is the length of adhesive bond. For obtaining reasonable results the only
possible way is to increase the value of e. so, the thickness of the adhesive and the length
of the adhesive bond are obtained 12 millimeters and
4.5 centimeters, respectively. The details of the bond are given in Table 3.

Table 3. Mechanical
properties of the adhesive
Property Value
E 2.5 Gpa
G 1 Gpa
e
c

0.25
l
45 mm

Layers
orientation

[ 45 / 0
6
/
45]
T


For analysis, a FE model was applied using the 3 - D linear solid elements. A
suitable mesh for finite element modeling of adhesive layer is needed. The shear
distribution stress of the adhesive is shown in Figure 9. Application of appropriate
adhesive, results in decreased maximum shear stresse in adhesive at the edges of the
connection; however, if the stresses remain same in the middle connection, start of
failure will depend on the relative shear strength values in the adhesive.
















Figure 9. Shear stress distribution in the adhesive bond connection






5. The weight comparison between composite and
steel drive shafts

The entire of vehicle drive shaft is consisted of several rotating masses. About 17-
22% of the power generated by the engine is wasted due to rotating mass of power
train system. Power is lost because a lot of energy is needed to rotate heavy parts.
This energy loss can be reduced by decreasing the amount of rotating mass. Table 4
represents the comparison of inertia moment between composite and steel drive shafts.



Table 4. Comparison of inertia moment between composite and steel
drive shafts

I (mm
4
)
I (Kg.mm
2
)

m
Steel
0.57 10
6

18370.9
Composite
1.59 10
6

9945
Diffrence% 64.1% 45.8%


In Figures 10, a mass comparison between steel and composite drive shafts has been done.




12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Weight




Composite
Steel













Figure 10. Mass comparison between
steel and composite shaft


6.
Conclusion

In this paper a one-piece composite drive shaft is considered to be replaced a two-piece
steel drive shaft. Its design procedure is studied and along with finite element analysis
some important parameter are obtained.
The composite drive shaft made up of high modulus carbon / epoxy multilayered
composites has been designed. The replacement of composite materials has resulted in
considerable amount of weight reduction about 72% when compared to conventional
steel shaft. Also, the results reveal that the orientation of fibers has great
influence on the dynamic characteristics of the
composite shafts.

Reference
s

[1] Gay, D.; V. Hoa, S.; W. Tsai, S. (2004). Composite materials:
design and application, CRC press
.
[2] Pollard, A.; (1999): Polymer matrix composite in drive line
applications. GKN technology, Wolverhampton.
[3] Rangaswamy, T.; Vijayrangan, S. (2005). Optimal sizing and stacking sequence of
composite drive shafts. Materials science, Vol. 11
No 2., India.
[4] Rastogi, N. (2004). Design of composite drive shafts for automotive applications.
Visteon Corporation, SAE technical paper series.
[5] Lee, D. G.; Kim, H. S.; Kim, J. W.; Kim, J. K. (2004). Design and manufacture
of an automotive hybrid aluminum/composite driveshaft, composite structures, (63):
87-99.
[6] Pappada, S.; Rametto R. (2002). Study of a composite to metal tubular joint.
Department of Materials and Structures Engineering , Technologies and Process,
CETMA , Italy


EI
mL
2